Burning To The Ground
by MeredithBrody
Summary: Kira searches the capital city on Cardassia Prime for survivors after the Dominion War. M-rate for vivid imagery of war.


**Title: Burning To The Ground  
><strong>**Summary: Kira searches the capital city on Cardassia Prime for survivors after the Dominion War. M-rate for vivid imagery of war.  
><strong>**Lyrics: How Far We've Come - Matchbox20  
><strong>**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned, nor do I own the Dominion War, obviously. Thanks Trek, for giving me the opening to write something like this.**

**I wrote this, initially, for the drabble challenge on Facebook. But I decided to expand it. I have tackled difficult subjects in my stories before. But this is my hardest to tackle, as it wasn't something that happened to me.**

**This goes to the victims of oppression worldwide. From Guatemala to Iran. Rest In Peace. I hope that you have far more peace in death than you did in life.**

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><p><em><strong>I believe the world is burning to the ground<br>**__**Oh well I guess we're gonna find out  
><strong>__**Let's see how far we've come  
><strong>__**I believe it all is coming to an end  
><strong>__**Oh well I guess we're gonna pretend  
><strong>__**Let's see how far we've come**_

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><p>It was her first view of daylight in months. But it wasn't a pretty sight. It wasn't the victory she had envisioned during the months of hiding underground and trying to arrange a revolution on a world that prided itself on it's military tradition. It was not the cheering she had expected. She walked through the streets, seeing the bodies of the dead. Hearing the calls of the wounded.<p>

This wasn't what she had expected it to be.

She had been around the internment camps, the prison camps, the work camps of the occupation, and still she had never seen devastation on this level. There were very few buildings still standing. The only ones she could see were Dominion barracks.

She could see Federation, Klingon and Romulan medics spreading amongst the wounded, in some cases, just giving them enough sedation that they would spend their final hours and minutes in relative comfort. Others they would tag for transportation to the medical craft overhead.

There were to many to help. She knew that.

This was supposed to be progress? How far had they come. All this death for nothing more than a few star systems, no real reason. Many good men and women had died for this war. Friends. People she had worked with most of her life.

Cardassia was burning. She knew many back home would think of it as poetic justice. The Cardassian's had raped and brutalised Bajor, but she had grown stronger to prove that she could stand alone. Cardassia would likely never stand alone again.

There was no justice here. No greater good.

She bent down, the body of a child, no older than Kirayoshi. She looked and wondered how anyone could sanction killing a child so young. This baby could have gone on to be a poet, an author, a military leader. His life would never go past this day. He would likely never be identified. She held the corpse close to her. Imparting a last act of kindness before she took him to where people were tagging the dead.

There was nothing here. There was no future. No history. Just pain. She continued her search, finding the living and getting them treatment. Assisting with transport of the dead. She saw many tears. Comforted many mothers who had lost children.

She couldn't even tell them that the Prophets were watching. There were no gods here. She knew that if they could have halted this they would have. But they didn't. Just sent her to help the survivors, and she would.

She had thought the war had affected her. But she hadn't lost anywhere near as much as these people. These people knew true suffering. The children who were orphaned, the parents who had had their children and homes destroyed in front of them by the Dominions' genetically engineered soldiers.

She looked up, and the sky was filled with the starships and shuttles that were coming to help evacuate the inhabitants of the heavily polluted cities, Get them out into the countryside, or move them to other colony's until Cardassia Prime was one again able to sustain it's population. She hoped that they would be able to bury the dead with names. But she knew for a lot of people, they had been stripped of their identity by the brutal final assault on their people.

She saw Julian, bent over a patient, she saw Captain Sisko, stood with the Admiral and Martok up on a balcony above the city. She saw other friends scattered amongst the makeshift hospital. They all looked exhausted. She couldn't focus on them though. She would go home to her friends. She was able to say where her father and brothers were buried. She had a life. That was more than some people here now had.

All destroyed, because of their determination to free their world from the Dominion.

All killed, because they didn't want to continue being a subjugated race.

She hoped Damar was proudly looking down on his planet. They had won, but it had come at a cost. They were free. She had heard a few survivors who were helping her clear the city shouting "Hail, Cardassia." but the words were lost in a sea of people too traumatised to move.

A young woman sat, clutching her child, speaking so fast Kira couldn't understand. Asking why the universe would do things to children. Inside the bundle, a child laid, barely alive. She took the two over to the medics, and went back out to continue the search.

She did all she could. Prophets help her, that was all she could do.


End file.
